Abstract: World-wide forest conservation initiatives and the creation of protected areas, in response to extreme world deforestation rates, are generally accompanied by the evictions of forest dwelling indigenous and tribal populations (ITPs). However, many of these populations had been living in their ancestral forests for hundreds and even thousands of years and appeared to have co-existed within their forests without detrimentally affecting the natural biodiversity.
The forest dwelling ITP evictions profiled in this research are pygmy tribes who have resided in central and east Africa for thousands of years and continue to suffer both land and human rights violations. Their evictions result in environmental problems as they attempt to acquire natural resources in unfamiliar surroundings and social problems as they quickly enter into extreme poverty. These repercussions, which are becoming global issues, suggest the need for an alternate approach to forest conservation, one that responds to the needs of forest conservationists as well as the rights of forest dwelling ITPs. This research explores forest conservation partnerships in Latin America between ITPs and forest conservation agencies to determine if these partnerships can provide an alternative to the conservation evictions of ITPs in Africa.